Member of the Institute

Lori Burrows

Professor

The Burrows lab is interested in the interaction of bacteria with surfaces, the first step of any infection, and biofilms - antibiotic and disinfectant tolerant populations. We study twitching motility, a form of directed bacterial movement across surfaces, and the unique 'grappling hook' machinery that bacteria use for this movement. We investigate genetic and chemical means of preventing or dispersing biofilms. We are interested in the synthesis and turnover of peptidoglycan (the bacterial skeleton); it's an outstanding drug target, unique to bacteria, but how bacteria control its properties is poorly understood.

Funding & Support

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

The Biointerfaces Institute at McMaster University is a state-of-the-art facility designed to use high-throughput methods to provide a new understanding of the nature of the biological/material interface, or biointerface.

The overarching goal of the Institute is to understand how biological systems respond to the introduction of synthetic materials, and conversely, how an engineered interface responds to, or is compatible with, a biological system.